Vegas.

Friday morning, I met Iwan and Eryn for lunch near Diana's work. She joined us shortly after noon, and we headed out for the long drive to Vegas.

The drive was a lot of fun. We chatted about stuff, and Eryn pulled out a book called "Cocology" (or something like that) that was quite a bit of fun. It's apparently all the rage in Japan. The book was filled with lots of little mini quizzes that were supposed to tell you what kind of person you are. For instance, we were supposed to draw three stars of different sizes, and add a tail onto one of the stars to make it like a comet. After doing a couple things like that, depending on how you drew your stars, which had the tail, etc, was supposed to tell you about your current career and it's future. Lots of bullshit, but a lot of fun. My cheeks were sore from smiling and laughing. The trip went well, and I had a lot of fun with everyone.

We rolled into Vegas around 6 or so, and met up with Heather and Mick who were already at the hotel. We got cleaned up and headed out to PF Changs for a nice dinner, and had a good time catching up. We then headed downtown to the Horseshoe for some blackjack, where me and D won some money, but everyone else lost (I think). We then headed over to the Sahara where me and D's winnings were quite quickly turned into losings, and other people lost even more money. The night was still somewhat young, but the $5 tables had taken quite a toll on us, so I headed to bed with the ladies, and the rest joined us soon after.

The next morning, we all got up and headed over to Capriotti's, which is a little hole in the wall sandwich shop which has the BEST sandwiches ever. The "Bobbi" is shredded turkey, stuffing, mashed potato, and cranberry sauce in a roll, and is a favorite in the group. After lunch, we headed down to the other end of the strip to the Excalibur, where Iwan and I checked out the poker tables. We decided to play, while the rest of the group wandered the strip and saw the sights.

The poker was a lot of fun. The previous night I dropped $80 on the $5 blackjack tables in about 20 minutes, so being able to cash in for $100 and play for a long time was a neat. I played at a $1-$3 spread limit game with a single $1 blind. This means that every hand, there is one person who's automatically in for $1, and everyone else can fold for free. Minimum bet is $1 on every round, and you can raise up to $3 on any round (max of 4 raises per round). Because of the small, single blind, you could potentially play for hours and see lots of hands for only a couple bucks. I started off folding quite a bit, waiting for good hands. When I did see a good hand, I'd try to raise pre-flop and knock out some players to improve my chances, but knocking out players seemed to be hard to do at such low stakes. So my AKs would face a flop of 3-6-8, and someone would bet $3 into me. I might see another card, but it would quickly become apparent that my ace-high wasn't going to win.

I had a couple hands where I got creamed. I had Ax suited, and the flop comes giving me four-to-the-flush. I and a couple others are betting and raising. The turn completes my nut flush, and my heart is racing. More betting and raising. River comes up a 9, pairing up with another 9 on the board. A new guys raises, and my heart drops. I call and he shows his TWO-NINE OFFSUIT, which gives up a full house and busts my straight. He was betting his 2-9 two-pair from the flop with all those raises and stuff. Urgh.

Another hand, I think I had the nut straight, and a card came on the river to make an even bigger straight possible, and I got stuck in a raising war with two other guys, and they ended up splitting the pot with the big straight, and I lost. I probably should have folded, but it was a tough move.

All in all, I lost $100 playing there, only winning one or two pots. In spite of that, it was the most fun I had gambling the entire weekend. I was able to play for a long time, and had some really thrilling moments. Iwan didn't play as long as I did, and cashed out with a profit of $52, which was great to see. Next time I go to Vegas, I'm definitely going to forego blackjack (especially $5 blackjack, which I think is above my means) and save money and play more poker.

Iwan and I met up with the gang late that afternoon back at the hotel. Iwan and Mick settled in to watch college football, while the rest of us rested and hung out. Soon enough dinner time was rolling up, and Iwan and Mick were showing very little signs of wanted to go anywhere. The girls were getting hungry, and I was getting restless to go out and do SOMETHING (I didn't come to Vegas to sit in the hotel room!) We waited for the footballers for a while, heading down to the casino to lose even more money at the blackjack tables (ugh!). We eventually headed out to dinner at the CPK at the Mirage. At the CPK, we sat at a table next to a famous poker player who was featured on the World Poker Tour. I don't remember his name, but he was a really annoying guy who licked the corners of his mouth a lot, had a weird nose, called bets "quack-quacks", and went by the moniker "X22". We were all thrilled to see a minor celebrity like that.

Saturday night, we were a little gun-shy about gambling. We left the Mirage and wandered around a little, but no one really seemed rarin' to go. We headed back to the Stratosphere and played a little more blackjack. Eryn won some decent money, and I won a tiny bit, which was nice, and had lots of Tom Collins', which was nicer. :) It was fun to have some excitement at the tables instead of just watching our money dissappear before our eyes.

I was beat, and headed up stairs to bed shortly after the ladies, surprised to see it was only 1am. Eryn and the boys followed pretty soon after, after playing some roulette.

Sunday morning, Iwan and Mick headed to the sportsbook and settled in for a long day of football. Eryn and Heather and Diana and I got some brunch, and then Diana and I hit the road. The traffic was pretty bad, but it was nice to spend some time alone and talk about the trip. We eventually made it home. I picked up the Chargers game that my parents were nice enough to record for me (thank you!) and watched that trainwreck. The only good side was that Shannon Sharpe had 3 touchdowns, which helped the Birdmen (my fantasy football team) a lot. And then we went to bed, thankful for our new mattress.

This trip, overall, was good, but not the best ever. It was a lot of fun to see Mick. I really miss having him around. And I always have a great time with Iwan and Eryn and Diana and Heather. Everyone is always uniformally so happy and funny and just generally fun to be around. I love to be reminded of what great friends I have, and how much I enjoy their company. The gambling was kind of the rough part of the trip. In previous Vegas trips, I remember our group getting a table to ourselves, drinking round after round of Tom Collins', cheering wildly and booing loudly at the swings of the table, and just generally having lots of fun. The gaming this time around was really subdued. Not a whole lot of drinking, lots of dissapointing losses and not a whole lot of winning.

I don't mean to end on a sour note, because I really did have a lot of fun. I spent quality time with my peeps, learned some lessons, and have some stories to tell. And because of our cheap hotel room and driving, this weekend certainly wasn't very much more expensive than any other weekend getaway.

Now... Back to work!